Not Guilty Verdict In Casey Anthony Trial Stirs Emotions In The Tri-State Area

ORLANDO, FL - JULY 5: Casey Anthony reacts to being found not guilty on murder charges at the Orange County Courthouse on July 5, 2011 in Orlando, Florida. At left is her attorney Jose Baez. On the right is attorney Dorothy Clay Sims. Casey Anthony had been accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter Caylee in 2008. (Photo by Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images)

Casey Anthony reacts to being found not guilty on murder charges. (credit: Joe Burbank-Pool/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A shocking not guilty verdict was delivered Tuesday in the murder trial of Casey Anthony, who was accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee.

A jury in Florida found the young girl’s mother not guilty of first-degree murder and not guilty of aggravated manslaughter of a child. However, she was convicted of providing false information to law enforcement.

The verdict has caused an uproar across the country and in the Tri-State area. CBS 2’s Sean Hennessey and 1010 WINS’ Glenn Schuck spoke with residents in New York City and New Jersey about their opinions regarding the case’s outcome.

Social networking sites have also erupted with reaction, including celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, who Tweeted: WHAT!!!!???!!!! CASEY ANTHONY FOUND NOT GUILTY!!!! I am speechless!!!,” and Ricki Lake who also posted on Twitter: I’m disgusted! #notguilty? Oh come on.

For Shapiro, the verdict also brought back memories of another high-profile case.

“There was so much, all the stack of evidence that was against her — just like OJ got free. This is another OJ that somebody who I feel was guilty went free,” she said.

CBS 2’s Hazel Sanchez also spoke with people in Times Square who were closely following the trial.

“I thought she was guilty. I was a 100 percent sure she was guilty,” Ray Clavel said.

“I think her and the father and the mother were all in on it,” LaVera Oberly said.

Other New Yorkers had quite a different opinion on how the trial turned out.

“I think there was more to it than the prosecution showed us,” Marvin Shapiro said, “I thought it might have been just an accident that led to other things, but I don’t think she was guilty of premeditated murder.”

“All the facts weren’t presented in terms of whether she drowned or if it was an accident,” said Joanne Bactowal, of East New York.

“It didn’t sound like to me, from the limited information I had, that they had real forensic evidence that was conclusive enough to really make you think that she had done it,” said Jan Wheeler, of Bloomfield, Connecticut.

Schuck spoke with a crowd at Matthews Diner in Waldwick, N.J. who watched the verdicts as they came down.

“I’m extremely mad. I know if it was my daughter, I would have an extremely difficult time even thinking about anything happening to her — let alone having something happen to her like this,” Lisa Barthold told Schuck.

Barthold also went on to say that Anthony should have at least been found guilty of neglecting her child.

“It just doesn’t seem logical that a 2-year-old disappears for 30 days and you don’t say anything,” she said.

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If you understand the American justice system, then you should also understand that you don’t “agree” or “disagree” with a jury verdict. You weren’t in that jury room. You have no idea what they had to consider. You dont understand the instructions they were limited to, nor do you understand the moral and ethical dilemmas they were faced with. I wonder how many of you actually ever served jury duty and how many of you judgement police spent your energy getting out of it instead. Before you rush to judgement, the next time you have the opportunity, go and serve jury duty, especially on a criminal trial instead of sitting at your iPhones rushing to make judgements that you have not earned the right to make. And do remember the American ideal of “presumption of innocence”. If you dont know what that means, i suggest you look it up.

She is guilty, we all know that, she knows that, the simple fact is that the State did not prove it. Yes, she got away with murder. But, Karma has already started. She was served with defamation lawsuit papers last night in prison. Hopefully she will get sued, lose, and all th emoney she hopes and plans to make will go to the real Zaneida Gaonzalez who is suing her and not in her packets.

im sitting here and watching the news and now is the time all the scavengers are coming out looking for cash and filing there frivolous lawsuits!! now thats messed up!!! its time for these people to go away!!

There are something to take in consideration,Criminal psychologys will do better judgement of this point;she is holding information,she didn’t kill her daughter, she is another victim of probably incest or sexual assault as that is the result of her daughter.She could end the pregnancy she could have an abortion, she was under presure during her pregnancy she could give her daughter in adoption or just at any family front door.That woman was intimidadet the whole pregnancy time. Who is the girl father? That’s the million dollars question. Between her silence, the biological father and her parents is the CORRECT ANSWER.Thats why she was with happy expression because she was free of the product of incest,it was the only way I justify the tatoo and her behavior after Casey’s death.She is hiding the important piece of this puzzle.It should be a second part with somebody else as a protagonist of this painful case.SHE IS A VICTIM TOO.

Isn’t admission of not reporting a child missing for 31 days sufficient evidentiary proof of child neglect??? How could this jury ignore that fact and at the very least not find her guilty of aggravated child neglect? A true miscarriage of justice.

The whole thing is just sad. I believe the women needs to sit in jail until she says what happened. i’m not saying put her to death because no one knows the truth…. but she does knows more then what she is saying…..

Based on the evidence presented, the verdict seems reasonable. You cannot convict someone of murder without proving there was in fact a murder. I’m just wondering how many of the people who are calling the jury “Stupid” are the very same people who go out of their way to never serve on a jury themselves?

If she was a black or Latina girl, she would be sitting on death row right now.
The jury can never believe a “nice” whit girl could kill her baby. Well, it happens all the time! She deserves to be in prison for what she did and I hope that her parents do NOT take her back in. Let her ltry to survive on her own!

Anyone who commits a crime deserves to pay under our justice system. Not from a blog, news media reporting or other source that cannot and should not qualify as a method of justice. Conviction and sentence comes from providing acceptable evidence that shows without a doubt that the defendant committed the charge.

After giving thought to my comment I apologize to bloggers who are ‘We the People’ and who have intelligent questions about our system of justice. It is healthy to discuss cases etc. I know it isn’t a perfect system and has it’s moments. I also confess there are things about the Caylee Anthony case that have come to my attention that are suspicious even if nothing more. Once again it isn’t a crime to discuss our justice system and I apologize for demeaning comments to bloggers.

With no caveat provided and the basic freedom of the press to give a daily dose of this with some ad infinitum of network expert correspondents the lynch mob mentality has all the fuel it needs to feed from.